OHSHC: The Triplets
by Marina StormFire
Summary: Imagine Haruhi as the youngest of triplets—and all three go to Ouran High as Scholarship students. The vase never gets broken, and the three of them DON'T join the Host Club. Main pairing: Hikaru/Haruhi, Kaoru/OC, OC/OC
1. Prologue

OHSHC: Triplets  
>By: Marina StormFire<p>

Summary: Imagine Haruhi as the youngest of triplets—and all three go to Ouran High as Scholarship students. The vase never gets broken, and the three of them DON'T join the Host Club.

Disclaimer: I don't own OHSHC OR its storyline. I only own my ideas and Other Characters.

Pairings:  
>Hikaru x Haruhi<br>Kaoru x OC (Satsuki)  
>OC (Narumi) x OC (yet to be named. Suggestions?)<p>

**Narrative by character  
><strong>_**Yelling by someone outside the current conversation  
><strong>__Emphasis  
><em>'_Thoughts'  
><em>/Flashbacks or dreamstates/  
>YELLING<p>

* * *

><p><span>PROLOGUE<span>

Three look-alike boys were wandering the halls, nearly ready to lose their tempers. "I can NOT believe it. FOUR damn libraries and the damn place is still too noisy." One of them groused angrily.

"Narumi-nii… maybe we should just pick a door and see if anyone will just TELL us where there's a quiet place to study."  
>"Or," piped in the last boy, as he cocked his thumb over his shoulder toward the windows, "we can study outside. It's nice out and it should be fairly quiet enough we can study in peace… WITHOUT distractions."<p>

Narumi looked between his younger look-alikes—Satsuki and Haruhi, then replied, "Sure, why not? Let's get a move on, shall we? It's a good idea, Satsuki. Sorry, Haru."

"Nah, it's okay. Satsuki's idea IS a good one. Mine, I can admit, was pretty lousy." The three of them laughed, as they made their way outside toward Ouran High's gardens, where they could study quietly.

/Meanwhile at the Host Club/  
>"Oh, look!" a feminine voice proclaimed, as she by chance looked out a nearby window she was passing on her way to her designated host for the day. "Are those the Scholarship Triplets of class 1-A?" she asked, no one in particular having seemed to have heard her.<p>

"Indeed, they are the Scholarship Triplets of class 1-A: Narumi, Satsuki, and Haruhi Fujioka." A smooth, dark voice answered from behind her. She turned and saw a dark-haired handsome boy with glasses, watching the three below them.  
>"Ah! Kyouya-senpai!" she exclaimed, surprised, but stepping slightly to the side and turning slightly to face him. "how long have you been there?" she asked, tilting her head slightly to the side out of curiosity.<br>"Not long," he answered, even as his mind worked quickly in trying to come up with ways as to get the Fujioka triplets into the Host Club. "But weren't you on your way to see Mori-senpai for the day?"  
>"Ah, yes. See you." She replied, appearing thankful for the reminder.<p>

Kyouya nodded as he watched the girl go for a moment, and resumed watching the three scholarship students outside under a cherry blossom tree. One of them was leaning against the aforementioned tree with a notebook resting beside him and his textbook in his lap; another was belly down with a textbook and notebook spread out side by side; and the last boy was using the sprawled form of his sibling as a desk for his textbook, while sitting cross-legged with a notebook in his lap.

It seemed that these three boys were used to their current arrangements. So how could Kyouya bring them into the Host Club? He turned around from the window to study the only club members who were in the same class… the Hitachiin twins. He wondered if they were amenable to bringing (i.e. kidnapping) at least one of them to the Host Club. Bring in one of them, lure in the other two. Kyouya inwardly smirked at his own brilliance.

/With the Triplets/  
>Simultaneously, all three had gotten sudden shivers down their spines. Shuddering slightly, the sprawled figure looked toward his other two siblings. Seeing them with slightly paler faces, he spoke, "Is it just me, or does it feel like someone someWHERE is conspiring to do something with one or all of us?"<p>

The figure leaning against the tree, shuddered slightly. "No, it isn't just you, Satsuki. We all felt it." He turned to his other sibling. "Haruhi? Think you can pin down where it's coming from?"

The cross-legged form set his notebook on top of his textbook, which was on top of his sprawled out sibling and made a quarter turn so that he could stretch his legs out in front of him and lean back on his arms supporting him from behind, closing his chocolate-colored eyes. "I can't really pin it down, Narumi-nii, but it's there on the top floor."

All three looked up at the top floor, and could only just make out a vague silhouette by one of the top floor windows.

"Narumi-nii? What do we do?" Haruhi asked, glancing slightly over his shoulder at his older brother.

Narumi looked at both his younger siblings, and began thinking. They had to do something about their appearance. Currently, they were dressed in old ugly colored sweaters, with Narumi's being the shade of green reminiscent of fungus off old cheese; Satsuki's was colored a yellow-brown like the stain left behind by smokers; and Haruhi's sweater was an ugly red-brown color that was reminiscent of a combination of muddy blood over rust. His hair was a tad long and needed a trim badly, but so did his sister's. Haru had tried to cut her own hair after some neighborhood kid left gum in it; and Satsuki had tried layering her own hair with terrible results.

Long story short: they needed appropriate attire and a more tamed look.

Haruhi could easily fix up some suits to look like the school's boys' uniform, and Satsuki could handle both his and Haruhi's hair trim—but she would need their dad's help in trimming her own hair. And they'd need their father's help to acquire whatever else they needed… like a new pair of contacts for Haruhi, and other little odds and ends that Haruhi would need to make their suits pass for Ouran uniforms.

Narumi looked at the sprawled form of Satsuki and the laid back form of Haruhi—his younger sisters. He made eye contact with both of them conspiratorially. "We get ourselves ready for tomorrow. We'll get dad's help tonight with getting our suits, shirts, ties, and dress shoes. Haru, you'll do the alterations on them so that they pass for Ouran Uniforms." Haruhi nodded, as Narumi went on. "Satsuki, you'll fix up mine and Haru's hair to something tamer, though dad is gonna have to fix up yours. And hopefully, by tomorrow, no one will be the wiser. I've no intention whatsoever in getting any one of the three of us mixed up in whatever shenanigans these *damn rich bastards decide to play on us."

"Agreed." Both girls chorused and almost simultaneously, started packing up their schoolbooks, with Narumi not far behind them.

"We should get started on getting home. Dad should be home by now, and he can help us get fixed what needs fixing." Haruhi said, as she shouldered her brown messenger—identical to her siblings. The only difference between the three of them was that their initials were sewn on the corner of the messenger's flap.

Both her older siblings agreed, and made their way off campus and made their way home.

* * *

><p>AN: Hi there, All! This is something new that's been bouncing around my head over the last few days or so… but here's a note that I am re-vamping quite a few of my stories and working on updating and making corrections on others.

So! In the meantime, R&R! The more reviews I get the higher the chance is for a new chapter… although, I can't guarantee how soon I can get 'em typed up and posted.

I hope everyone enjoys this first part of the story! Tell me what you like, what you don't like, and what you'd like to see. And I'll see about adding it wherever.

Btw, a further note on this story: *damn rich bastards: Haruhi usually uses this phrase to refer to the general populace of rich kids... it would stand to reason that her siblings would also use the same phrasing. :P

Enjoy!  
>L8rz,<br>~'Mari-chan~


	2. Chapter 1: Triplets Play Hard to Get

OHSHC: Triplets

By: Marina StormFire

Summary: Imagine Haruhi as the youngest of triplets—and all three go to Ouran High as Scholarship students. The vase never gets broken, and the three of them DON'T join the Host Club.

Disclaimer: I don't own OHSHC OR its storyline. I only own my ideas and Other Characters.

Pairings:  
>Hikaru x Haruhi<br>Kaoru x OC (Satsuki)  
>OC (Narumi) x OC (yet to be named. Suggestions?)<p>

**Narrative by character  
><strong>_**Yelling by someone outside the current conversation  
><strong>__Emphasis  
><em>'_Thoughts'  
><em>/Flashbacks or dreamstates/  
>YELLING<p>

* * *

><p>Chapter 1: Triplets Play Hard to Get<p>

When the Fujioka triplets made it home that afternoon, they were enthusiastically greeted by their father, Ryouji "Ranka" Fujioka, who was now horrified at his children's unkempt and wild rag-a-muffin appearances on their first day of attending a prestigious school. He sighed. "What happened to your hairstyles?" he asked, as he went to the bathroom for a pair of hair scissors, and came out to find that they were posing in front of a camera. _'Probably for a BEFORE picture.'_ He thought, as he set a stool down in front of him.

"A neighborhood kid put gum in Haru's hair, and I ended up botching my own hair after trying to put cute layers in it." Satsuki explained, as she fingered her own hair. She didn't mind short hair so much as to confused as either of her siblings… come to think of it, it would be a rather hilarious school-wide joke: Who could identify which Fujioka triplet was who?

"Me? I don't have any kind of excuse," Narumi put in, as he ran a hand through his longish and untamed fly-away hair. "And we need to do some REAL shopping."

Ryouji nodded to the wisdom to that, at the very least they needed groceries for the next week or so. He motioned for Satsuki to sit on the stool. "Sit. As soon as your hairstyles are fixed, we'll go shopping for the items needed. Between the four of us, we should have just enough to get the proper clothes, shoes, odds and ends, Haruhi's contacts, and groceries."

The three nodded. While Satsuki had her hair trimmed, Narumi and Haruhi sat down to make up two lists: one for the articles of clothing, shoes, and odds and ends; and the other for the groceries. By the time both lists were done, Satsuki hair trim was done and she, for all intents and purposes, looked very much like a boy.

Narumi looked at his younger sister as she shook out her hair. "Oh, this'll be a _fun_ school-year." He said before he fell into a fit of laughter. Ryouji chuckled at his only son's comment. His baby girls were going to have to have the same hairstyle as their big brother… it would probably be easy to say that they were going to school as boys. He motioned to Haruhi to sit on the stool that her older sibling had just vacated, as the aforementioned sibling laid down a plastic bag flat on the apartment floor and motioned for Narumi to sit on it as she fixed his hair to match her and Haruhi's hairstyles.

Several minutes later, both Narumi and Haruhi, had stood up and had shaken out their hair, making their father laugh out loud. He motioned for Satsuki to join her siblings and to hand him her camera—to which she grinned and did so.

After the picture was taken, the triplets went to get out of their ugly clothes and into recently made up clothes by Haruhi. Narumi came out of his room wearing a long sleeved black-blue tee with a screen-printed wolf howling at a full moon hanging in the midnight sky with stars sparsely scattered about, a thin black and blue short-sleeved over-shirt left unbuttoned, and tennis shoes. He also put on a thin black leather jacket to keep out the spring air's chill.

Satsuki came out of the room she shared with Haruhi next. She wore black leggings under her light blue jean shorts, a forest-green asymmetrical long sleeved top with a fleece-lined navy-blue shrug to ward off the chill, and put on her black converse shoes.

Haruhi, was the last on finished dressing, had put on a black long sleeved tee with a golden screen-printed shooting star trailing star dust blazing across the front with a scattering of stars throughout, dark blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a fleece-lined magenta windbreaker with a blue rose on the back.

Ryouji nearly squealed with delight at how SHARP his children looked. Remembering he still had Satsuki's camera still in hand, motioned for the three to move together for another picture. They rolled their eyes with fond exasperation, but did as their father asked.

After another picture, the four of them were off to a clothing store to pick up a collection of black trousers, white shirts, a black tie, and a light blue blazer, and black dress shoes for all three. Then to a sewing shop, where the little odds and ends could be picked up to recreate the Ouran Academy school crest to go on the blazers. The next stop, was to an optician's office to get Haruhi a new set of contact lenses. And just before they went home, they went grocery shopping for the next week and a half.

With their hands full of bags of clothes, shoes, odds and ends, and groceries, they wearily made their way home—wear Haruhi would recreate the school crest and stitch them onto their blazers, as well as the purple ribbon onto their ties; Satsuki would clean up the mess that was made when they had their hair trimmed; Narumi would sort out which clothes and shoes belonged to who; and their father would put away the groceries and start up dinner.

"And I did SO wish that my darling daughters would embrace the feminine side of themselves." He sniffed dramatically, as the four of them went about their tasks. The triplets glanced at each other from their tasks, then simultaneously looked up at their father, who was leaning in the doorway of the kitchen. Ryouji was rather surprised, when he saw three pairs of similar chocolate brown eyes staring at him.

"Dad," Narumi started, after encouraging nod from his younger sisters. "think of it this way: I'm going to be a lawyer—like mom, and the girls are going to do what they do best—Satsuki as a photographer/beautician and Haruhi as a clothes designer, when we graduate. But right now, they're _okama_ like you. They have plenty of time to develop the girlish side of them."

Ryouji smiled and ruffled his son's hair, and found himself hugged from both sides by his darling girls. Backing slightly away, and bringing his girls in front of him so he could look them both in the face. "And what about getting a boyfriend someday?"

Narumi nearly growled at the implication. He'd beat them off with a stick first.

Haruhi giggled at her brother's protectiveness, as Satsuki replied, "We're busy with school at the moment, dad. How 'bout we focus on schooling first, and THEN the boyfriend-issue?"

"It'll happen someday, but not before Satsuki and me are ready for it to happen." Haruhi told him, as he hugged them both.

"But I _will_ get to meet any potential boyfriends, won't I" he asked, "and any friends you make at Ouran, you'll introduce me to, yes?"

Both girls hugged their feminine father, when Narumi piped in. "We don't want to share you. Between our individual work AND school, we don't spend a whole lot of time together."

"And the cherry on top of THAT," Haruhi interjected, "is that you don't get enough rest."

"But yes, if and when Haru and I ever get a boyfriend, then we'll bring him or _them_ over—whichever comes first." Satsuki finished.

Ryouji nodded, then pressed on, "And your regular friends?"

Both girls looked at their father, then back at their brother, who nodded. Then back up at their father. "Maybe…" Satsuki hedged, as she grasped her little sister's hand.

"But we've only been at Ouran for a day though." Haruhi finished the thoughts, and clasped her older sister's hand. Their father nodded in understanding, before kissing his girls' crowns and turned back to the kitchen to finish making up dinner, while Satsuki finished vacuuming and Haruhi to finish the uniforms for the next day. Narumi had long since finished his task during the discussion.

/Next day/  
>The halls were filled with the whispers that there were some really cute AND handsome triplets enrolled. No one seemed to realize that the handsome triplets that day were in fact, the poor-looking rag-a-muffins from the day before. That is, until the three of them entered class 1-A, and after briefly exchanging a laughing glance with each other, headed toward the seats for the "Scholarship Trio".<p>

Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin watched the triplets enter the classroom, curious. The two of them had noticed in between customers, the triplets that were studying outdoors. They had wondered how strong the connection between them was, and if they were planning on joining the Host Club. After club activities had wound down the day before, Kyouya had requested they bring one of the Fujiokas to the club, but didn't say why.

Glancing quickly to each other, before watching the triplet—Haruhi Fujioka, take his seat between them. The boy between them could almost pass as a girl… almost.

As soon as Homeroom began, the twins studied the triplet from the corner of their eyes throughout the entirety of class. They noticed that he took down just enough relevant notes to study from, but then about halfway through and the teacher continued droning on lesson, Hikaru was glancing at the boy, only to be surprised when he saw him sketching minute details in what looked like a dress design, but then hid the design underneath his notebook to continue writing in his notes. Not sure if Kaoru caught what he'd seen, he saw his younger twin glance his way with a raised eyebrow. Hikaru shook his head and mouthed, _'Later.'_ To which Kaoru nodded.

Kaoru wondered what it was about the triplets that had him curious… especially that one sitting by the window, looking like he was daydreaming with his head up in the clouds. He was startled out of his thoughts, when a sharp 'SNAP!' was heard as the teacher snapped his pointer down on his desk, as he called out, "Fujioka-san."

Three sets of eyes snapped to face the teacher, who was surprised to find 3 sets of identical brown eyes on him. "Yes?" they asked, rather blunt. The teacher sweat-dropped, then cleared his throat to clarify, "Fujioka Satsuki-san?"

Kaoru watched the daydreamer close his eyes and stand. "Yes, sensei?" the boy asked. The calmer of the Hitachiin twins watched the boy, as the teacher asked, "Would you care to summarize the class lesson?"

The boy nodded and launched into a quick summary of the lesson, leaving the teacher stunned. Kaoru couldn't blame him. He had thought the boy a lazy daydreamer who didn't pay attention to the lessons being taught.

Clearing his throat, the teacher nodded curtly and told the triplet to sit down, and returned to the remainder of the lesson. Kaoru looked over at his brother and both exchanged a smirk, but then noticed a barely there kind of noise—looking to the triplet between them, noticed his head was buried in his arms, shoulders barely shaking, and was muffling his quiet snickers at his brother's behavior.

Both Hikaru and Kaoru were rather surprised at the near outward show of hilariousness, but then thought that if they were in the triplets' shoes… they'd have done the same thing.

Haruhi tried to muffle her snickers as well as she could. There was always that stunt that Satsuki liked to pull. She'd pretend to daydream and when she was caught and asked a question pertaining to the lesson, she'd shoot back the correct answer. And quite frankly, to the triplets, it NEVER got old. The expressions on the teacher's faces were really priceless.

She managed to calm herself down rather forcefully, until she was able to focus on the lecture and resumed taking notes; and only on occasion she would take out her sketchbook from underneath her notebook, and change a bit to her design here and there, and adding a bit here and there. She knew that the twins were glancing at her every so often, but when she glanced up to her left, she found the one called Hikaru looking at her. Quickly, she took out a blank piece of paper and wrote, _Something interesting catch your eye?_

Quickly folding it in half, slipped in onto the twin's desk to her left, much to his surprise… and Kaoru's as well. She'd caught them glancing at her every so often.

Hikaru opened the page, keeping an eye on the teacher's back, as he kept droning on. Reading the triplet's message, he wrote out, _No._

Folded it and slipped it back onto the boy's desk. He watched him open it, and exasperating rolled his eyes. The boy turned to him and mouthed _'Liar'_ And went back to taking his notes, until the bell chimed for the next class.

Almost immediately as soon as the bell chimed, the Fujiokas converged together and seemed to hold in laughter until they were out of the classroom. Hikaru and Kaoru followed—not sure if the triplets knew they were being followed… until one of them turned to look at the set of twins. "Shouldn't you be in your next class?"

The Hitachiins looked up at the sign above the door, marking it as a classroom for Japanese History. They looked at each other and had to run in the opposite direction for their next class—Chemistry.

Much to their disappointment, they didn't encounter the Fujiokas until the last two classes of the day—Sewing and English Literature.

When the final bell chimed, signaling the end of the school day, the Hitachiins' glanced at each other then at the triplet they were targeting. Almost immediately the Fujiokas converged… almost, for suddenly, one of the three was whisked away.

Haruhi was NOT having the time of her life right then. One moment, she was waiting for her siblings, the next she's grabbed by both her arms and whisked away to who-knew-where, until quite abruptly; she was dropped onto the marble floor of a darkened room. Standing up cautiously, and feeling her heart pound rather painfully, she looked around—until a single spotlight shone down on 6 admittedly cute boys. She frowned when she saw the devil-twins on each side of the high-backed chair, where a tall, violet-eyed blonde sat.

"Welcome to the Host Club!" the six boys said in unison.

"The _'Host Club'_?" she asked, afraid… and feeling rather tired.

"The _Host Club_ is a club made up of 6 hosts, who entertain and charm women." A dark-haired boy with glasses explained, as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and seemed to be smirking.

All of a sudden, the doors to the room opened, and the other two Fujiokas walked in. Haruhi noticed that Narumi was mad as an angry bull and Satsuki had a stormcloud brewing over her head.

"The _HELL_ are you crazy?!" Narumi demanded, as he stormed up to stand beside his little sister. He and Satsuki had had a few moments of confusion when Haruhi disappeared, but thanks to a fellow classmate, found out that it was likely that the Hitachiins had taken her to Music Room #3, where the Host Club was located.

Narumi turned to Haruhi, noticing she was more than a little pale, and seemed to be in slight shock and more than a little bewildered. "You okay, Haru?"

Haruhi looked up at her big brother and shook her head slightly. "I could be better, Narumi-nii, if these _clowns_ hadn't kidnapped me." She said, pointing her thumb over her shoulder at the twins.

"But Kyouya-senpai asked us to bring one of you here." The twins said, pointing fingers at the dark-haired boy with glasses.

Trying badly to control her breathing, Haruhi turned to glare at them. "Did it –_maybe_- occur to you to ASK me to come with you?" not waiting for a reply, she turned to her siblings. "Can we go home now? I'm tired."

Satsuki put an arm around her little sister. "Yeah, we'll go home." She looked at Narumi, who was still a tad red in the face. "Narumi-nii?"

Not looking at his younger sister, he told her, "Satsuki, take Haruhi down to the gates and wait for me there. 'kay?"

Knowing that these boys were going to get chewed out, Satsuki didn't argue, instead she turned her back to Haru and bent over a little. "Mm-kay. C'mon, little brother, hop on. I'll give you a lift, and we can get the hell out of here." As soon as Haruhi had settled herself on her sister's back, Satsuki turned back to Narumi, "See you at the gates."

Narumi nodded, still not looking at his younger sisters. As soon as the doors closed behind them, Narumi rounded on the Host Club.

"Next time the lot of you decide to pull a stupid stunt like this again, there are going to be problems. _ASK_ before you decide to force someone into your outrageous shenanigans."

"We _were_ going to ask you and your brothers to join the Host Club." The dark-haired Kyouya answered, but was rewarded with an emphatic shake of Narumi's head.

"Doesn't matter. Should've asked BEFORE kidnapping my little brother. He has heart problems, just so you know," he turned and took a few steps toward the door, then stopped, and threw over his shoulder. "It's something called _'common courtesy'_. Maybe you should practice it sometime." And left with a parting, "see you whenever."

As soon as the door closed behind the oldest(?) Fujioka triplet, the Hosts gave a collective sigh and silence reigned, until the violet-eyed blond broke it. "That… could've gone better."

And the other Hosts couldn't have agreed more.

* * *

><p>AN: Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I had the chapter already written up yesterday, but with everything happening, didn't have a chance to get to a computer to type it all up and post it. SO! This is it. Don't forget to R&R!

Think anyone can guess the order the Triplets were born in? :-P Send your guesses in a Review! ^_^

L8rz!  
>~Mari-chan~<p> 


	3. Chapter 2: Apologies part 1

OHSHC: Triplets  
>By: Marina StormFire<p>

Summary: Imagine Haruhi as the youngest of triplets—and all three go to Ouran High as Scholarship students. The vase never gets broken, and the three of them DON'T join the Host Club.  
>Disclaimer: I don't own OHSHC OR its storyline. I only own my ideas and Other Characters.<p>

Pairings:  
>Hikaru x Haruhi<br>Kaoru x OC (Satsuki)  
>OC (Narumi) x OC (yet to be named. Suggestions?)<p>

**Narrative by character  
><strong>_**Yelling by someone outside the current conversation  
><strong>__Emphasis  
><em>'_Thoughts'  
><em>/Flashbacks or dreamstates/  
>YELLING<p>

A/N: This chapter takes place the day that the Host Club _kidnaps_ Haruhi… and cause her problems from the get-go, and Narumi rips right into them. Another note, is that in reference to Haruhi, only when she's with her siblings will she referred to as her true gender—a girl, and when she's on school grounds or around other students or the host club members, she'll be referred to as a boy.

Answered Reviews to:  
><strong>InvisableTarget<strong>: Congrats! You got it right! I tried to make it a little difficult, but with only the Prologue and the first chapter to go on, you're the first (and only one) to guess it right! ^_^

**shadowridder221**: In answer to your review, I wanted to even the odds in the Fujioka family, with two men(?) and two girls in the household. It would also serve having a protective sibling to both the girls, and they don't really have to necessarily rely JUST on their father, you know?

* * *

><p>Chapter 2: Apologies<p>

Even as the hosts entertained the young ladies, they couldn't help but feel bad about their behavior against the triplet—Haruhi Fujioka… a boy with heart problems.

To the sky was blue was to say that the stunt that was pulled was a severe miscalculation on Kyouya's part. And it wasn't a pleasant thing to admit to himself, even more so that it was only an attempt into asking the Fujiokas to join the club because of the potential he saw in their familial relationship would bring in more customers—he hadn't taken into account that there could've been really BAD repercussions, and it would've been his fault. When he'd presented the idea to the club members the day before after they had closed for the day, everyone seemed to agree that it was a good idea… now though, it seemed that he, as the one who instigated and planted the idea, would have to apologize… though he had no idea HOW.

The thoughts of the other 3 members was indifferent at best, but they were concerned as well for the well-being of their _kohai_.

"Ne, Takashi… think Haru-chan will be alright? He looked little more than pale." A diminutive blond asked in between customers, to his much taller and quieter cousin.

Takashi Morinozuka said nothing in response, but hoped that the younger boy would be alright.

/With the Triplets/  
>Satsuki was careful when going down the flight of stairs, carrying her sister—staying near the railings to help keep her balanced. She made it down the first flight of stairs, when Narumi caught up to them.<p>

she looked at her big brother. "Did you tear them a new one?"

Narumi sighed, and ran a hand through his newly trimmed hair. "Yeah. Now we have to hope that they learn something from it." He glanced at Haruhi, who had her eyes closed and was leaning her head on Satsuki's shoulder. Gently placing a hand on her back, he asked quietly, "Haru? You okay?"

Slowly, Haru's eyes opened, and whispered, "No… not really. My chest hurts… and I forgot to bring my medication…"

Narumi and Satsuki glanced at each other, worried. "How 'bout I take _him_ for now, Satsuki. You look like you need a break." Satsuki looked over at their big brother, well-aware that they were still in the school.

"Sure, my arms are pretty tired."

Carefully, the both of them maneuvered, with very little help from, Haruhi—so she was draped over her brother's back, nearly asleep. With their sister settled, they carefully made their way down the second flight of stairs, and off the school grounds, toward home.

As soon as the three of them made it back to their 3-bedroom apartment, Narumi went straight for the girls' room to deposit his little sister on her futon, and taking off her shoes. Satsuki had gone straight fro their only bathroom to look in the medicine cabinet for Haruhi's heart medication. Quickly finding it, she read the instructions, and tipped the bottle til two little pills popped out into her palm. Capping the bottle, she pocketed the pill bottle and gripped the pills, headed to the kitchen to get a small cup of water, before heading to the room she shared with Haruhi.

"How is she, Narumi-nii?" Satsuki asked, as she deposited the pocketed pill bottle on the bedside table that separated their two futons, and sat on her own.

Narumi set the back of his hand on their sister's forehead, and frowned a little. "She's a bit warm and starting to breathe a little hard. Do you have her medicine?"

Satsuki nodded, and handed Narumi the pills, as he started to shake her gently awake. "Haru, hey there… you need to wake up to take your medicine…" Narumi said, as he gently, but firmly rubbed her arm to coax her awake.

Haruhi's breathing hitched slightly, and she started coughing. "Easy, Haru, easy…just breathe…" Satsuki murmured, just loud enough to help their sister. Slowly, Haruhi managed to get her breathing under control and blearily looked up at her older siblings. "Hurts…" was all she managed, before grimacing at the pain in her chest.

Narumi brushed Haruhi's bangs out of her face, and quietly told her, "I know it hurts… but you gotta take your medicine to make the hurting go away, okay?"

Haruhi didn't like her heart condition—much less the medication she was on, but bared with, as she allowed her siblings to help her sit up and gave her the cup of cold water to help the medicine go down. As soon as she'd taken the medicine, her siblings helped her lay back down to rest from that day's shenanigan.

"Rest for a bit, Haru. We'll take care of the house chores and dinner, while you rest up." Satsuki said quietly, as she motioned for Narumi to move so that she could pull Haruhi's blanket over her.

"Mm-kay…'night, nii-chan, nee-chan…" Haruhi mumbled, as she succumbed to the land of dreams.

"Sleep well, little sister." Narumi and Satsuki said together, as they left the room, to get the chores and dinner for that night started… and to prepare an explanation for Haruhi's condition for their dad.

/Next day/  
>The Fujioka trio walked into school, as if nothing had happened the day before, and the Hitachiin twins were rather startled at the slight pallor the youngest Fujioka sported and had gotten worse when he spotted the twins, and headed straight for the teacher, and said something to cause the teacher to frown momentarily then soften to an understanding nod replying quietly, to which the triplet bowed. The teacher smiled kindly and said something else, and the triplet nodded, turned and headed back toward the classroom door, while the teacher picked up his classroom phone, dialed a few numbers, and spoke quietly to someone on the other end, nodded a couple times, and replied (presumably it was to say "thank you" and "goodbye") before hanging up.<p>

The twins looked at each other wondering what the teacher and one of their scholarship classmates were whispering about… and were further worried when the boy turned back to his siblings briefly, nodded and received a couple relieved grins and nods, before heading out the classroom door to some unknown destination.

They both frowned, wondering what was going on, and if the boy was deliberately avoiding them because of their part in the "kidnapping" the day before. But before they could corner and ask one of the other two remaining triplets where their brother was off to, the teacher called for the class to come to order and took attendance, and skipping Haruhi's name—presumably because he knew Haruhi was here and elsewhere in the school, then proceeded to the day's lesson.

When homeroom ended, the twins tried to talk to the remaining triplets, but to their immense disappointment, were summarily ignoring them. It wasn't until lunchtime just after their 4th period class—Geometry, that they finally got a glimpse of the missing triplet out the window they'd chosen to sit beside. He was eating a bento lunch with his siblings outside under the trees. Watching the two triplets give the missing triplet some papers and a couple notebooks—the twins surmised that Narumi and Satsuki had taken it upon themselves to lessen some of the work for Haruhi and had picked up his homework and notes to go with them for him to copy.

And it wasn't 'til a little while later, after their 6th period class—Japanese History, when they had Study Hall, did they finally find the last member of the Scholarship Trio. In library #4 on the second floor of the school on the upper floor—sitting at a table near the railing overlooking the rest of the library, sat the last Fujioka sibling, looking ensconced in his work.

With a glance at each other, the twins—by mutual agreement, went up the stairs to the upper floor to where their classmate was studying. Moments later, they were standing at the boy's side, waiting for him to acknowledge them. They didn't have to wait long.

"Can you be helped?" the Fujioka asked, blandly sarcastic, as he took notice of them. They surprised the boy, when they both just set an arm around the other's shoulder, and replied, "We just wanted to introduce ourselves, we're…" they pointed to themselves in turn at this point. "Hikaru Hitachiin." Hikaru said, winking at the seated boy. "and Kaoru Hitachiin." Kaoru finished, as he smiled gently at the seated boy.

The boy could only blink when they further surprised him when they untangled their arms from around their brother and bowed to him at the waist.

"We're really sorry for yesterday." They apologized together, and waited for his reply.

Haruhi had had a really peaceful day, and was only surprised when she noticed the presence of her twin classmates; even more so, when they first introduced themselves and then bowed to her when they apologized. Slowly, she put down her pencil and turned in her chair to face them, regarding them just long enough to make them wonder if she was going to forgive them or not, even as she thought back to what the homeroom teacher had said…

/Flashback/  
><em>Haruhi and her older siblings had just entered the classroom, when she had seen the twins that had practically kidnapped her the day before and didn't want to be anywhere near them right then. She was reminded of how little of her homework she had done the day before, when she'd woken up from her nap and dinner was just about done. Quickly walking toward the teacher, she became nervous, unsure if the teacher would understand at all.<em>

_"Sensei, I had a bit of an incident happen yesterday… and I wasn't able to get any of my schoolwork done. The incident caused my heart problem to react. I was wondering if I could get some leniency just for today and do up my schoolwork in the library and turn it all in at the end of the day…?"_

_Much to her surprise, the teacher, who had frowned at the beginning, was now showing softened understanding, and replied, "Just for today, Fujioka. I'll leave your schoolwork with your siblings and trust that they'll give it to you at a later time."_

_She was much relieved and bowed in thanks. "Thank you, Sensei." When she'd straightened, the teacher smiled kindly at her, saying, "Not at all. I'll give the school attendants a heads up and they'll give the librarians a heads up to give them a call when you show up at whichever library you arrive at, hmm?" she had nodded, turned and had walked back toward the door, before looking back at her siblings, nodded at them that everything was alright, and received relieved nods in return, and walked out the door to make her way to Library #4 on the second floor of the school, alerting the librarian there, they called the attendants office to let them know that Haruhi Fujioka had arrived at the library for the day._

_And she'd been there since working on her schoolwork from the day before.  
><em>/End Flashback/

"You can consider yourselves forgiven, ON ONE condition…" she stated, bringing herself out of recent memories, and raised her voice slightly on the last three words when it looked like the Hitachiins were going to ignore everything else.

"What condition?" the twins asked simultaneously, which would've been funny if she didn't do that with her siblings every so often.

"Keep in mind that there could be bad consequences for your actions someday if you don't think before you act. Try learning from yesterday's mistake and don't repeat it." She told them. The twins seemed to actually listen and take her words to heart.

"Deal!" They said, grinning. Haruhi smiled back slightly, and grimaced slightly at the slight pain in her chest. Residual pain from the debacle the day before; Leaning down, she reached for her bag and rifled through it for a moment before withdrawing a pill bottle and a small water bottle.

Kaoru and Hikaru became worried when they saw their classmate grimace. "Haruhi?" Kaoru asked tentatively, pulling out the chair next to her and sitting in it.

"I'm fine. Just residual from yesterday. It takes a couple days for me to get back to normal." She reassured them, as she tapped out a couple small pills, opened the bottle of water, and downed the pills with a swig of water following seconds later.

Hikaru moved to sit across from her at the table, and started taking out his homework for the day, when he noticed several books on the table with one common topic—flowers. Puzzled, he picked up a book and waved it in front of Haruhi to get his attention. "Flowers, Haruhi? Really?"

Haruhi flushed slightly, and replied quickly before they could tease her, slightly agitated. "It's not what you think. They're for inspiration." And suddenly found herself the center of both twin's attention. Reluctantly, she brought out her sketchbook from under her notebooks and homework. "They're for several designs I have in mind…" Almost immediately, she found her sketchbook in the middle of the table and pages rapidly, yet carefully, flipped revealing one clothing design after another.

Both Hitachiins looked at each other, then at Haruhi.

"Will you come with us to the Host Club?" they asked, and regretted asking when they saw shadows in their classmate's dark brown eyes.

"No," she said flatly. "I have my schoolwork to catch up on and turn in after school lets out today. I can't afford to let my grades slip, even at the start of the year." She told them firmly. Slowly they nodded, even though they barely had any idea just how hard the triplets had to study to get into such a prestigious school such as Ouran.

"Do you mind if we look at these?" Kaoru asked, carefully watching the boy's expression.

"I don't mind, but I need that for a little later." Haruhi told them, as she went back to doing the previous day's work, nearly done with five classes worth of schoolwork. And her sketchbook would be needed to make up the designs for her other two classes—Art class-Jewelry and Sewing class. Those two classes would need her sketchbook to log her designs to pass her midterm exams.

Hikaru moved to stand next to his younger twin to look at the sketchbook designs and had a blank piece of paper between them to 'talk'.

_'What was it that you wanted to tell me yesterday, Hika?'_

_'Haruhi was working on a dress design during sensei's lecture.'_

_'A dress design? During class? Did you get a good look at it?'_

_'In order: Yes. Yes. And no. It might have been something else altogether.'_

_'Well, at least we'll be able to ascertain that for sure now that we got the sketchbook to tell whether what you saw yesterday was the dress design he was working on yesterday was the one you saw or not.'_

Hikaru nodded in agreement, and went back to looking through the sketchbook at some of the most outstanding and most _beautiful_ designs he'd ever seen… until something caught his eyes.

Several minutes later, she finished her assignments and needed her sketchbook back for her designing ideas fro her other two classes. Putting down her pencil, she stretched her arms above her head, stretching leisurely… and felt her spine pop in several places.

"Ow…" she groaned, wincing as she turned her body one way then the other. Until she heard the twin's gasp of what sounded like shock. She looked at the both of them, who were staring between her and the sketchbook, puzzled. "What?"

They turned the sketchbook toward her, revealing a recent design of her windbreaker with the design of a rose on the back. But that wasn't what was shocking. One of the twins was tapping something in the top left hand corner of the page. What looked like a simplified lotus with the crescent arms of the moon. She remembered that particular design had come to her when she started designing her "Flower line" of clothes. She had taken it up as her personal design logo and called herself "Tsukiren" meaning, "moon lotus". It was fitting she felt.

She looked up at them, who were still staring at her. "Something you wanna say?" she asked them, her mouth quirking up into a half smile, half smirk.

"You're Tsukiren…" Hikaru whispered, still stunned. When he'd first noticed the logo, he couldn't believe it. He'd heard of the costume designer, Tsukiren. Even seen several of her designs online, but no one had seen the designer in public. He assumed that the boy was just a big fan of Tsukiren, until a look at several of the designs and when they had been drawn and branded with the same logo in the corner made him think otherwise… that this boy was, indeed, the famous designer. When he pointed the logo out to Kaoru, he was just as surprised.

Kaoru, too, had heard of the designer… had even ordered quite a few clothes from Tsukiren's Arabian costume line, and was just about to boost himself up to fanboy status of Tsukiren's fashion line—nevermind that his own mother was the worldwide famous fashion designer. There was just something about the designs themselves…. The last line that was posted online, was a tasteful Modern Times/Victorian era mix. Where there were some tops (but not all) that were tastefully trimmed in a little lace that could be worn at formal and some casual functions, but not enough to qualify as something to be worn as underclothes. And the dresses that were made had a modern times quality that also had a hint of goth-victorian era in it with minimal ruffles in the skirt and bits of lace that were stitched to the ruffles in an asymmetrical line in the overskirt, that could be worn at some formal functions or even as a costume to a *Renaissance Festival.

They had both gone through each and every design carefully and with each one, there was that same logo.

"Yes." Haruhi said simply. There wasn't much else to say to that.

Kaoru looked at the design, then back to Haruhi for a moment, before a thought occurred to him, and glanced at the uniform the boy now wore. "Did you make that uniform too?"

Haruhi's eyes went wide for a moment before she nearly burst out laughing… at least someone was asking about the change in clothes, if nothing else. "No, I didn't. The shirts, trousers, blazers, and ties were all store-bought. We'd gone to a crafts/sewing shop to get the odds and ends we'd need to make the Ouran uniform. Putting the odds and ends together and stitching them onto the blazers and ties were all my handywork." She told them, before turning pages til she came to an unfinished sketch of some kind of jewelry design… looking reminiscent of her logo.

"What class are you working on now, Haruhi?" Kaoru asked curious, as Haruhi worked on filling in the minute details.

"Art class-Jewelry." Haruhi replied, as she erased an errant line and darkened another. She sat back and studied the outline and minute details. "I was thinking of making it a glass-beaded necklace… but maybe that's too impractical. I want it fashionable, but not too gaudy or flashy… not too simple, but not too complex either…" she murmured now, lost in her thoughts and ideas, completely ignoring her company, as she got back to drawing out what she was going to do with the design of her logo.

Hikaru and Kaoru watched her work fro several minutes, and were startled when her voice reached their ears. "Are you here to do your homework or to skip class?"

Still looking at the boy still working on his jewelry design, they replied, "It's our Study Hall."

Pausing to look at them individually, she shrugged. "Okay." And went back to her design. Several minutes later, she turned the page and started on something of another dress design in an asymmetrical pattern. She paused, slowly tapping the eraser end of her pencil on her sketchbook… and stared at the outline of the design.

The twins could only look at the boy, as she worked, but then when they were reminded of their own schoolwork, pulled it all out and got to work quietly.

/With Narumi and Satsuki/  
>The two older Fujiokas were rather relieved that their homeroom teacher was understanding of their youngest sibling's condition and allowed her to do up yesterday's homework to turn in at the end of the day and to have today's work done for the next day with her older siblings help.<p>

They'd managed to meet outside for lunch so that they could give Haruhi that morning's homework assignments and the notes for them to be done for the next day, with a promise to get the afternoon's work for Haruhi and help her with it when they found a quiet place to study. Which in any case Narumi's choice: remain in the library or choose somewhere else, and knowing him, it was probably going to be in the kendo dojo.

"Hey, Narumi-nii?" Satsuki whispered, during their 6th period class—Biology, as they were working on the worksheets given at the same lab desk.

"Hmm? Need some help, Satsuki?" Narumi asked quietly, not wanting the teacher to come over to check on them for their low whispering. They were allowed to talk to their lab partner—but not too loud though to prevent distracting everyone else.

"No…it's not the work. You think Haruhi's alright?"

Narumi glanced at his sister, then continued on his current worksheet. "I think Haruhi is just fine. Sensei told us at the end of Homeroom that Haru could be granted leniency just for today considering _his _ condition and with a librarian as a supervisor, our sibling will looked after AND kept on-task. We won't have to worry so much, except when it comes to them who HAVE to eventually apologize for that stupid stunt yesterday."

Satsuki nodded slowly and went back to working on her current worksheet. Her thoughts drifted every now and then to the Hitachiin twin boys—somehow feeling drawn to one of them…she mentally gave herself a good shaking. She and Narumi had done their absolute best to avoid even so much as speak to the twins in their class. But they couldn't be avoided forever. They still had their last two classes together with them.

"Don't think so much about the Hitachiins, Satsuki. Whether they manage to corner our sibling, and make _him_ accept their apology or not, is _his_ prerogative. The only thing you and I can do is stand by and watch and accept whatever happens." Narumi murmured, as he flipped through his biology textbook for the correct answer to a specific question on the worksheet he was working on.

Blinking slowly, Satsuki looked at her brother, somewhat owlishly. "How did you…?"

"You're one of my siblings, Satsuki," Narumi murmured, interrupting her. "we're triplets. We're connected to each other and Haruhi. Haruhi and I will always know the general gist of your thoughts, same for Haruhi and you knowing _my_ general thoughts, and so on. We were born together, and that's the way it will always be. Nobody can change that."

Satsuki softened her eyes at her big brother, before going back to her worksheets. She'd almost forgotten that particular aspect of their triplet connection. "Yeah…" she whispered, only audible to Narumi's ears. The boy-triplet's mouth tipped up in a small soft smile, without looking at her, and finished writing in an answer on is worksheet.

The rest of the day went by quietly, with the twins slipping them a short note saying that they found her in Library #4 on the second floor and had apologized and further details would be told later when school was let out for the day. Both the older siblings looked at each other, pocketed the note, and continued with their sewing designs.

They both knew that their designs wouldn't top their baby sister's, but they could come pretty damn close with only a little bit of guidance.

/With Kyouya/  
>Guilt was an unfamiliar feeling to Kyouya Ootori, a feeling that had been eating away at his conscious since that near-serious misstep the day before with the <em>kohai<em>—Haruhi Fujioka. He'd seen the younger boy walk onto the school grounds earlier that morning with both his brothers (who was who escaped him entirely at the moment), but had no such luck in finding the boy between classes to slip him a note of apology. He'd had a quick glimpse of him during lunch time—but not at any other time since. With his last class being Study Hall, he set about looking for which class the boy would be in by texting the twins and getting a text back that the missing triplet was in Library #4 on the second floor, on the upper floor.

Slowly, he made his way to Library #4 and wondering what the _hell_ he was going to say by way of an apology. He made it to the library just as the final bell chimed and everyone was to be in class at that time. Scanning the upper floor, he found the missing Fujioka… and the twins. Wondering what the hell was going on, he made his way to the upper level—his mind going two different ways: one part wondering just how he was going to apologize and the other part wondering what in the world the twins were doing here, instead of in class.

Of course, he noticed the number of students right there in the library in general, were scattered about, with a teacher supervising with the help of the librarian and their assistants.

He didn't, on the other hand, realize that he'd stopped only a few feet away from where the missing triplet and the twins were working, until the bland voice of the Fujioka penetrated his thoughts.

"Hmm? Something you wanted…?" the boy trailed off, not knowing his senpai's name, which was kind of expected. There had been no introductions the previous day.

"Kyouya Ootori-senpai." The dual voices of the Hitachiins introduced simultaneously, to which the boy nodded.

"Kyouya-senpai, then," the boy acknowledged, and looked in the second year's direction, almost but not quite startling the older teen. "was there something you wanted?"

Kyouya found himself nodding to one of the two spare chair. "Is one of those chairs free?" he asked, mentally kicking himself when he saw the younger boy's eyes darken so as to be a near-black color. _'Probably looking for an apology from me.'_ He thought to himself, and focused on the boy's answer.

"Nope, my older brothers are around the library picking up some books for a class project and plan on joining up soon."

Slightly disappointed, Kyouya moved to another table far enough away to seem like he was just out of earshot, but was close enough that he could watch and listen to their quiet conversation.

* * *

><p>AN: Chapter 2 is up! I'm happy I managed this. R&R plz, I look forward to more positive reviews! Enjoy the chapter!

OH! Before I sign off, a note: The Renaissance Festival isn't a figment of my imagination and takes place sometime in August, where you can dress up in medieval clothes- dresses, armor, or even peasant-type clothing. I'm just not sure if Japan has this Festival. It's really fun though. ^_^

L8rz!  
>~Mari-chan~<p> 


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